


The Experiments

by Ailelie, Cinaed



Series: Enduring Legends [16]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Flashback, Gen, Magic, Male Friendship, No season 4 spoilers, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-12
Updated: 2011-12-12
Packaged: 2017-10-27 07:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailelie/pseuds/Ailelie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinaed/pseuds/Cinaed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Monday, December 12 2011</i></p><p>In which Ambrose confides in Adam, and remembers a series of magical experiments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Experiments

_Monday, December 12, 2011_

Ambrose let the door slam shut behind him and tossed his bag at the couch, putting all of his frustration into the throw. Too late, he realized Adam was already sitting on the far end of the couch. “Uh, sorry.”

“Well, hello to you too,” Adam said dryly, blinking first at the bag that had nearly hit him and then at Ambrose. He frowned, concern creeping into his expression. It had become a familiar look on Adam’s face since the previous Monday. “Aren’t you home a bit early?”

“Arthur sent me home. Said I looked like death warmed over and that he didn’t want to catch it,” Ambrose explained, fighting to keep the irritation from his voice.

“I can’t say I disagree,” Adam said quietly, and then patted the spot next to him. “You know, if you want to talk about it--”

The automatic denial rose to his lips, but then Ambrose thought about it. He was tired, confused, and pretty much as clueless as he’d been during his birthday party. Maybe talking about this with someone would be helpful.

“This is going to sound weird and a little crazy,” he said, sitting down.

Something flickered across Adam’s face at that, there and gone too quickly for Ambrose to decipher. “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately,” he said. “What’s going on?”

Ambrose took a deep breath. He’d meant to start slow, work his way around to the whole ‘having weird dreams and remembering memories about myself and Arthur, and also apparently being able to defy the laws of science’ issue. His brain seemed to have other plans, because when he opened his mouth, what came out was, “I can apparently do magic.”

“Magic,” Adam repeated. He was quiet for a moment, expressionless. Then he set aside the book resting in his lap and turned to face Ambrose, fixing him with an intent look. “And by magic you mean…?”

Ambrose pulled out a candle from his bag and held it between him and Adam on the couch. “Lumos,” he said quietly. A second later, the candle was burning, a pale flame that warmed Ambrose’s face and flickered wildly in the wake of Adam’s sharp exhale. “Nox.”

The candle went out, and Adam lightly touched the blackened spot on the wick. “It’s cold,” he said in surprise. 

“I’ve been testing with a variety of candles, and a variety of languages-- Rowling’s fake spells work best, I’m not sure why, and I even--”

“Wait,” Adam said, and Ambrose realized he’d begun to babble. “Start at the beginning.”

“Remember when I mentioned the weird thing with the candle at my party? I told you it must have been one of Arthur’s stupid pranks, but it wasn’t. Since then I’ve been doing research. I’ve bought candles from a half-dozen stores, done so many experiments--”

 ** _Experiment # 1_ – _Monday, December 5, 2011_**

“Okay,” Ambrose said into the quiet of his bedroom. His voice wobbled, and he cleared his throat. He had the candle from the restaurant in front of him as well as a candle bought from the dollar store two blocks over.

The wand felt slippery in his hand, but maybe that was just his sweaty palm. He cleared his throat and pointed the wand at the restaurant candle. “Lumos,” he said, and flinched back as the candle flickered into life. He turned the wand onto the dollar store candle. “Lumos,” he said again.

A laugh scraped its way past his throat when a flame lit that candle as well. “Shit,” he said to himself, wonder and fear mingled in the soft tremulous tone. “Well, that’s…interesting.” 

 **  
_Experiment # 2 – Tuesday, December 6, 2011_   
**

This time the wand was safely tucked away in his sock drawer. Ambrose stared grimly at the three candles on his desk. He pointed a finger at one. “Lumos,” he said, and smiled when nothing happened. His smile died two seconds later when a flame struggled into being.

“Lumos,” he said, pointing his finger at the next candle. This time there was no hesitation-- the flame instantly flared into being, leaping higher than any of the other flames had before.

Ambrose’s heart was pounding too hard; he could taste something bitter on his tongue. Adrenaline, he realized, and swallowed. He raised his hands to stare at them. They looked the same they always did—there was a paper cut still healing on his thumb, the white star-shaped scar on the crease of his palm from where he accidentally jabbed himself with a pencil when he was nineteen.

No, they didn’t look any different, but Ambrose found himself studying them like they belonged to a stranger. After a long moment, he clenched his hands into fists, letting them drop to his sides. “Well,” he said, feeling laughter threatening to burst forth again, “I guess it wasn’t the wand.”

 **  
_Experiment # 3 – Tuesday, December 6, 2011_   
**

Ambrose squinted at the computer screen for a moment before turning back to the candle. “Galad,” he said, slowly and distinctly. This time he didn’t twitch as the flame glowed blue, but he still found himself a little breathless. “Okay, so Sindarin works.” He made a notation in his notebook, pleased when his hand didn’t shake too badly.

Once he was finished, he reached for his Latin-English dictionary, as well as pulling up a Japanese-English online dictionary. “Time to try some real languages.” 

 **  
_Experiment # 6 – Wednesday, December 7, 2011_   
**

Ambrose glanced down at his list of possible spells, and then back up at the book resting on his bed. He cleared his throat, excitement and nerves making it hard to breathe. “Wingardium Leviosa,” he said, and laughed as the book lifted up into the air and floated above his head.

There was a knock on the door. Ambrose drove for the book, snatching it out of the air just as Adam poked his head inside. “Dinner’s ready,” Adam said, raising an eyebrow as Ambrose turned a too-bright grin on him.

“Great!” Ambrose said, hearing the false note in his voice. “I’ll be there in a second!”

Adam paused and opened his mouth to say something. Apparently deciding against it, he shook his head. “Make sure you come downstairs before the food gets cold,” he said, and left.

Ambrose waited for a moment, and then whispered, “Okay, let’s avoid anything that even _sounds_ like the Killing Curse.”   

 **  
_Present_   
**

“And, Adam,” Ambrose said, “I’ve been having these _dreams_ \--”

\-- _dreams of magic, how it felt to raise his hand and speak words that scorched his throat and made the air crackle with power; the rush of sheer joy he felt when his rumbled attempts at a spell finally transformed into magic; the way a whispered word tasted of bittersweet wonder when he forced breath back into a dying companion’s lungs and watched the blue fade from their lips--_

“Dreams?” Adam prompted when Ambrose tried to go on and found his mouth had dried up, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.

Ambrose got up and started to pace. He swallowed hard, trying to work up enough spit to speak. He waved a hand. “Dreams about using magic, more than just lighting candles. I’m talking about big, dangerous magic.” He closed his eyes. “I dreamed that I could talk to dragons, Adam.”

He was quiet for a moment, surprised to find that he was breathing hard, like he’d just run instead of paced the room a few times.

“Have you spoken to Gwen about this?”

Ambrose turned to stare. Of all the things he’d expected Adam to say, asking about Gwen hadn’t been one of them. “Gwen?” He laughed a little. “Yeah, no. She’s busy enough with her residency, I don’t want to bother her with this. Especially since. Uh.” He cleared his throat. “I started using magic when she gave me a toy wand, and David…David said he had a weird flash of memory after Gwen sent Shea some toy knights. I’m not sure why there’s a connection, but Gwen’s gifts are the only link between our experiences.”

“David’s experiencing these memory flashes too?” Adam said, still with that unreadable expression.

“Possibly? I only asked a few questions before I had to hang up. It’s too weird to discuss over the phone.” Ambrose ran a hand through his hair, the urge to laugh rising in his chest. “I was going to talk to him about it when he got here Thursday. Still don’t know what to tell him. ‘Hey, looks like I can do magic and we’re remembering stuff that never happened to us.’ I nearly called Arthur ‘Sire’ at the party-- sure, he’s as rich as Midas, but he’s not _actually_ royalty.”

“Does anyone else know?” Adam asked.

“No--” Ambrose said, and then stopped. “Arthur’s cousin might have seen me right after I tried some magic at the Christmas party,” he said. “But she didn’t see anything, I don’t think--”

 **  
_Saturday, December 10, 2011_   
**

Ambrose watched all the candles relight, and let out a slow, wondering breath. Exhaustion dragged at him, weighing him down, but he couldn’t help but marvel a little. The spell had exceeded even his wildest expectations—not only had all the candles in the room died, but all the _electric_ lights had gone out as well.

He blinked at a sudden surge of dizziness. Apparently performing a more intricate level of that spell took a lot of energy. He headed towards the kitchen, scribbling his observations into the little notebook he’d taken to carrying around.

He bumped into someone, and stumbled backwards with a startled, instinctive “Sorry!”

“Ambrose!” Anna fixed him with an irritated look. There were two spots of color on her cheeks, fever-bright, no doubt from annoyance and bad temper. “Look where you’re going.”

“Yeah, I’m s-- are you okay?” Ambrose asked, staring at Anna’s hand, which she was cradling to her chest.

“I burned myself on one of the candles,” Anna said shortly. Then something softened in her face. “Did you see them? The way they all went out at once with the electricity, and then all lit back up like….” She trailed off, gazing into space, a small, puzzled frown puckering her mouth.

“I saw them. Weird, huh? I wonder who thought putting joke candles all around the party was a good idea. Your uncle’s probably furious.” Ambrose was striving for a light tone, but apparently something in his tone and laughter was off. His stomach twisted. The spell had gone farther than the room he’d been in? That hadn’t been part of the plan.

Anna blinked, the unfocused look vanishing as her eyes focused on him with an intensity that made him fidget and want to hide his notebook behind his back. After a moment, though, she shook her head. “It was,” she agreed with an odd twist of her lips, and then stalked past him without another word. 

 **  
_Present_   
**

“I don’t think she knows anything,” Ambrose said with a quick shrug. “She probably thought that I was weirded out by the candles flickering on and off like that.”

Adam was quiet. When Ambrose looked at him, the older man’s expression was pensive, the deep furrow between his eyes deepening in thought and concern. “I don’t know what to tell you,” Adam said at last. “You’ve done experiments, you tell me, experiments where magic actually works. And you and David-- you both seem to be having incredibly vivid dreams.” He was quiet again. “May I see your notes? Perhaps I’ll be able to make some sense of them.”

“Of course,” Ambrose said, gratefully offering the notebook. “So you don’t think this all sounds crazy?”

“Ambrose, you are a most unusual young man, but mentally ill you are not,” Adam said, beginning to thumb through Ambrose’s notes. He looked up and met Ambrose’s gaze. “While I look at this, however, I suggest you speak to Gwen about this. You’ve obviously been working yourself too hard trying to figure this out on your own, and while two heads are better than one, I think Gwen would be helpful as well.”

Ambrose frowned. “Maybe you’re right,” he said, and sighed. “I don’t know what to say to her.”

“Try starting with the ‘Lumos’ spell,” Adam suggested dryly. “It’s extremely convincing.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This part was written by Cinaed, and beta-read by Ailelie.


End file.
